5 Rules to Not Hate Waking Up at 7 AM

Day 20/365: Most of the lists about waking up early are crap, but these rules work for me!

Unless you’re living on a tropical island where the sunrise is really something to wake up for, you hate waking up early. Come on, say it: “I HATE waking up early!” There you go, that wasn’t so hard, was it?

On Saturdays, I have to wake up early to go to work sometimes. It involves a little bit of a commute with my car, stopping at the gas station to pick up gas and some pretzels for breakfast, which are usually my lifeline.

“Make today so awesome that yesterday gets jealous” — Unknown

I read countless lists of tips and tricks about how to wake up way before the sunrise and still feel fresh and good and ready to take on the world. For me, none of those rules or secrets ever worked.

In order to get up early and don’t feel the urge to smack my car with an axe, I hold on to the 5 rules below and, if I execute them correctly, I know I can survive an early morning without having to go to a psychiatrist.

1. Go to bet BEFORE midnight

I never sleep in. I am a freelancer, yet I have a very strict schedule that involves work, going for lunch every day, studying for school and spending time with family and friends.

Regardless of that, I never wake up before 9 in the morning, so when Friday night comes and I know I have to get up at 7 AM the next morning, I always go to bed before midnight.

This simple gesture tells my brain that I have to be up early the next morning and sometimes, it lets me sleep. Most of the times it works, so it really is as simple as going to bed early if you need to be fresh the next day.

2. Wake up slowly

I don’t leave my phone on my desk for the next morning. I don’t own a ridiculous alarm clock that jumps around the house and needs to be caught and stopped. The worst thing you can do when you have an early morning is to just jump out of bed like a crazy person.

We are conscious animals, and animals take time before waking up and starting their activities. Even lions yawn and stretch their legs before going out into the wilderness searching for the next pray.

Wake up slowly, have a few minutes for yourself, then slowly stand up and have a minute on the side your bed before going into the morning routine.

3. Think rationally

I don’t trust the “think positively” stuff. You shouldn’t either. It’s not something that you can do so often, it’s not sustainable. Insteand, whenever I need to think about good stuff, I think rationally.

I hate morning, you hate morning, the guy that says he loves waking up at 4 AM? Trust me, he hates mornings. Sometimes he does, no matter what his blog says. Hate is a natural feeling in people, so don’t be afraid of it.

Instead of saying “I need to think positively, I looove mooornings, I looove suuunrises” and hate yourself for thinking like that, you’ll be better off by saying “I know this is not my ideal morning, but it is what it is, it’s just work, it’s not as bad as I make it seem to be. I’ll be fine”

4. Hold onto something

I always look for something to hold onto for the early morning starting from the night before. It might be my breakfast, the most delicious pretzel in town or coffee or being the first person in town to walk down some empty supermarket aisles for some early shopping.

“When I wake up every morning, I thank God for the new day” — F. Sionil Jose

Thinking about something that’s meaningful and fun will allow you to sleep better and you’ll stop worrying about your mornings being that sucky because they have their benefits and, whatever it is that you choose that fun thing to be, it should motivate you to get out of bed without so much winning.

5. Singing and Pink Elephants

In the morning, your brain is not used to you being silly. It wants you to be grumpy, unpleased and overall obnoxious. You woke it up and you should be paying for it, so the brain sends all sorts of crazy thoughts your way.

All you need to do in order to avoid these thoughts is to surprise the heck out of your brain!Singing in the shower works for me, followed by singing in the car, singing while paying for gas at the gas station (in my head, of course) and singing all the way to the office.

“Memory creates a hallucination of the past, desire creates a hallucination of the future” — Jaggi Vasudev

I also like to provoke thoughts hallucinations inmy brain. How do they work? I don’t know, I think I just invented them, but to give you an example, whenever I feel like I’m tired, anxious or up too early, I look at the cars on the road and I imagine them being, say, Pink Elephants.

The road to work turns into something way more interesting than it should ever be. But it works and it keeps the brain off from thinking about a warm bed or the fact that I should hate myself for waking up at an ungodly hour.

I’m not crazy, my mother had me tested. Just to clarify that for you.

Thank you for your time!

My name is Gabriel Iosa, I’m a 25 years old travel enthusiast, food lover, Psychology student, full-time freelancer, writer and Instagram fanatic. You can follow me @gabrieliosa, and if you liked this post, give it exactly 44 claps!

I’m on a mission to write 365 articles in 2018. This is definitely the biggest writing challenge of my life so far. If you’d like to be part of the journey, please follow me here on Medium.com for the daily posts!